Their suggestion: head for area children`s museums, theaters and the zoo.

Shoppers with children and teen-agers on their holiday lists can find something for everyone, from cat-shaped earrings and theater tickets to microscopes and dinosaur T-shirts.

The prices for gift items range from 30 cents to $35, with a portion of the proceeds going toward the organizations` operations.

The shops are filled with dinosaur-decorated notepads, animal-adorned calendars and mugs, educational-but-fun books and more.

Not every gift can be stuffed into a stocking or box, such as memberships to Dreher Park Zoo or the South Florida Science Museum, both in West Palm Beach.

In addition, for $25 to $200, holiday gift shoppers can ``adopt`` an animal at Dreher Park Zoo. An official adoption certificate will be made out to the recipient of the gift, and the money will go toward the care of a specific animal. The ``adoptive parent`` also will be invited to the zoo`s annual family reunion.

Gift certificates for acting workshops are available for children and teen- agers at Starmakers Theatre Company or Forida Academy and Theatre Enterprises, both in Boca Raton.

Tickets to theater productions can be very special gifts for all ages, said Denise Klass, director of Starmakers.

``It`s a chance to get dressed up and go out with Mom and Dad. It`s not just for boys or just for girls. It`s fun for everybody,`` she said.

The more popular items for children and teen-agers at the Morikami Museum gift shop west of Delray Beach are the Japanese wooden, animal-shaped puzzles and the model robots and castles, said Helene Buntman, one of the shop`s organizers.

Packages of origami paper, sold at the shop for $4.50 and less, are especially popular.

``They don`t get tired of it,`` she said.

Boca Raton`s Explorium Emporium, like many of the shops, carries educational toys, games and activities that can be fun and challenging.

Calendars that track endangered species, beginning science books, bug viewers, vials of gem stones are just a few of the items available at the Emporium.

Teen-agers are especially interested in the microscopes, T-shirts, model airplanes and the tornado tubes, she said.

A tornado tube, used with two one-liter jugs and water, will create a twister inside one of the containers.

The West Palm Beach science museum`s holiday shop boasts do-it-yourself kits that contain the materials and instructions to create multi-cultural masks, pinatas, beaded bracelets and totem poles; a glow-in-the-dark nature craft kit; and a plastic U.S. map that can be colored.

SHOPPING LIST

Some of the alternative shopping sites in Palm Beach County with gifts appropriate for children and teen-agers:

-- Little Palm Theatre in Boca Raton. Tickets to any one production or a season subscription for a series of eight or four plays: A Christmas Carol through Dec. 28; Beauty and the Beast from Jan. 4 to Feb. 15; Beethoven from Feb. 22 to March 28; Charlotte`s Web from April 4 to May 23; Jack and the Beanstalk from May 30 to July 4; Cinderella from July 11 to Aug. 22; Treasure Island from Aug. 29 to Oct. 3; The Wizard of Oz from Oct. 10 to Nov. 14; and Babes in Toyland from Nov. 21 to Dec. 26. Individual tickets are $6.75 each through Ticketmaster outlets. If available, tickets at the door are $6 each. A subscription is $40 for an eight-play series and $22 for a four-play series. Call 394-0206 or a Ticketmaster outlet.

-- Florida Academy and Theatre Enterprises. Gift certificates ranging in cost from $75 to $175 are available for acting workshops for age 3 and older. Call 394-0206.

-- Starmakers Theatre Company. Tickets to any production: Free To Be . . . You And Me through Jan. 5; and The Kids From Broadway from Jan. 12 through April. Tickets are $7 each and $6.50 for senior citizens. Subscriptions also are available. Gift certificates for workshops for youth age 4 to 17 are available. Call the theater`s 24-hour hotline at 487-3550.

-- Dreher Park Zoo. An Adopt-An-Animal gift fro $25 to $200 will help care for one of any number of animals from a Box Turtle to a Red Kangaroo. The ``adoptive parent`` will receive an official adoption certificate and will be invited to the zoo`s annual family reunion. Zoo memberships of varying sizes and costs also can be purchased as gifts. Call 533-0887.